The panel, directed by the stateís Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, was set up to ensure Morganza-to-the-Gulf maximizes hurricane protection with minimal environmental impact.

The panel, scheduled to meet several times over the next six months, is scheduled to report its findings to state officials in October. The next meeting date hasnít been announced.

Morganza is a system of levees, floodgates, locks and other structures

designed to protect Terrebonne and western Lafourche from storm-related flooding.

Terrebonne levee officials asked for the review in hopes of quelling criticism from environmentalists and scientists who question whether Morganzaís proposed alignment would harm acres of eroding wetlands and argue that it would fail to provide adequate hurricane protection.

On Friday, the panel got a board overview of Morganza and heard the types of scientific modeling used to study storm surges, storm waves and tidal circulation in the area. Specifics will be discussed in detail at future meetings, officials said.

"Weíre looking at different aspects of this project over a series of meetings," said Denise Reed, a professor with the department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of New Orleans and a review panel member. "We received a lot of technical information today."

Morganza is designed to give a 100-year level of protection, one that aims to defend against surges from hurricanes with a 1 in 100 chance of hitting during any given year.

Exactly how tall the levees would have to be built hasnít been determined by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

But, as demonstrated in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, levee height is not necessarily the most important factor. Levee resiliency is also important, meaning that levees shouldnít fail even if overtopped, said Gordon Boutwell, a Baton Rouge geotechnical engineer. Resiliency measures include re-enforced turf on earthen levees and concrete at the back base of levee walls. The concrete can decrease the likelihood that water will erode the leveeís foundation once itís overtop.

The panel spent the bulk of its meeting learning about Morganza.

The systemís levee alignment has changed slightly since 2002, when a final feasibility report was released.

Instead of its proposed 72 miles of levees, realignment would shorten it to 64 miles. That could shorten the construction time and result in a stronger system, officials said.

The majority of the levee would be built on existing ridges, roads and atop other barriers, said Carl Anderson, Morganza project manager.

The alignment changes would eliminate 90-degree angles which some fear could result in a funneling affect and strengthen a storm surge, said Stevie Smith, an engineer with T. Baker Smith Inc., the Houma firm which has designed parts of Morganza.

"You get rid of a focal point, get rid of a point of energy from a storm," Smith said.

One of the alignment changes is just south of Bush Canal and would connect the end of Bayou Terrebonne to Bayou Little Caillou.

The other is between Montegut and Pointe-aux-Chenes, just northwest of the recently built J-1 levee. It would follow an existing levee to the south thatís part of a marsh-management area operated by the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. This change also minimizes the impact on wetlands, Smith said.

Levee officials have primarily focused on starting Morganza in the southeastern part of the system, near Pointe-aux-Chenes and Montegut, Smith said.

Based on past experiences, storm surges approach Terrebonne from the southeast, hitting these Pointe-aux-Chenes and Montegut hours before surges are felt in other parts of the parish, he said. These observations were used as the basis for establishing a starting point, rather than a formal analysis. Observations, he said, are just as important as a formal study.

"Itís not just as important. Iím sorry," said Robert Twilley, review panel chair and director of the Wetland Biogeochemistry Institute at Louisiana State University.

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